New York: Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Wednesday said that he plans to donate 100,000 chicks to poor nations in an effort to end extreme poverty. The chicks will go to rural areas in two dozen developing countries from Burkina Faso to Bolivia, where the Heifer International charity manages breeding operations and distribution, according to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Speaking in front of chickens pecking and clucking in a New York City skyscraper, he said: “There’s no investment that has a return percentage anything like being able to breed chickens.” Raising and selling chickens can lift families out of poverty, and a farmer breeding 250 chickens a year could make $1,250, said the Foundation, which is partnering with the Heifer International.
Referring to the proverb that teaching a man to fish will feed him for a lifetime, he said: “The parable could have been stated in terms of giving somebody a chicken and showing them how to raise chickens.” Mr Gates made his announcement on the 68th floor of a new building at the World Trade Centre, a site not typically used for showcasing chickens, he said. “We snuck them in,” he quipped.
